Taxes | Mysite

TAXES

This page still 'under construction' - more coming soon!

Benjamin Franklin : 'There are two certainties in life. DEATH and TAXES!

Well, I'm not dead (yet, thanks to some smart Aussie doctors), but I'm definitely experiencing the taxes! And I really think that Sidney should do a better job of explaining the system.

Wainwright (2018): "If the assessment for your house went up by 20%, the same as the average, then your Sidney tax increase is 2.43%. Your assessment increase is not "also impacting" your tax bill. If your assessment went up less than 20% then your tax increase will be less than 2.43%; if your assessment went up more than 20% then your tax increase will be more than 2.43%. That's how it works!"

Really?

It would seem to me that Wainwright describes a very direct relationship between the amount the assessment changed (greater or less than 20%) and the associated tax increase (more or less than 2.43%). On that basis, I'd say that the assessment increase is CLEARLY impacting my tax bill.

The way I see it, if the amount I pay Sidney this year is 5% bigger than what I paid last year, MY TAX INCREASE IS 5%, regardless of the theoretical differences in what BC and Sidney think my house is worth.

SO, in fact, my 2018 Assessment went up 31% and my Gross Taxes went up 14%. My 2017 Assessment went up 28% and my Gross Taxes went up 9%. I DON'T SEE ANYTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING A 2.43% INCREASE for 2018, so I guess the amount of change in the assessment value REALLY DID IMPACT MY TAX BILL!!

A change in the 'assessed CAPITAL value' of property should NOT be conflated with the operational costs of running the Municipality. IT IS NOT 'INCOME' to the property owner. This may NOT be 'Sidney's fault' that it works that way, but they are in the role of 'the messenger', so it's them that gets shot at.

So, if the total assessed value of all EXISTING properties in Sidney went up by the 'average 20%', and you then ADD the growth of NEW buildings, LESS the smaller value of what they replaced, I guess you would end up with an increase in the TOTAL ASSESSMENT VALUE of, say, at least 22%.

Now, if the 'mill rates' stayed constant, Sidney would have had about a 22% increase in total Municipal revenue; obviously they did not, so, the mill rate must have been 'adjusted' so that the increase in the Municipal Taxes Collected (on a base which was 22% higher) was 2.43% for the 'average house', which is assumed to have had a 20% increase in assessed value?

However, since the 'average property' proportion of the new Total Assessment will have DECREASED by about 2%, isn't the final rate increase actually slightly higher than the advertised 2.43% ???

Confusing, isn't it?

Maybe somebody needs to have a good look at 'How it REALLY works' and try to give us, the TAXPAYERS, a simpler explanation? Council? PNR?